Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Roy Witt:   
      
        [re what cats are thinking]   
   ak>  The answer is of course that nobody knows.   
      
      
              On the surface of it, yes.  Together with the British & the   
   Chinese, cats are said to be inscrutable... OTOH such a remark often tells me   
   more about the observer than it does about them!  Several years ago, for   
   example, Dallas & I watched a fictional account on TV of what went wrong   
   between Prince Andrew of the UK & his wife Sarah (AKA "Fergie").  In one   
   particular scene Fergie screams at the Queen's secretary that he's ruined her   
   marriage.  Without doing a frame- by-frame analysis I can't tell you exactly   
   what the male actor did to give both of us the same impression.  As a servant   
   this man would be expected to keep his feelings to himself until asked to   
   offer an opinion, but the actor let the mask slip just enough to let *us* know   
   he was glad to hear what Fergie said....  :-)   
      
      
      
   ak>  But looking at the cats' faces during such moments we   
      
   ak>  certainly can suppose that they are deep in thoughts.   
      
      
              Yes, like the guy who shouted "EUREKA!" in the bathtub... [chuckle].   
      
      
      
   ak>  If we consider the first variant we can suppose that   
      
   ak>  when a human washes a cat the whole life flashes through   
                                  |its   
      
   ak>  its mind and a state of consternation is the aftermath   
      
   ak>  of the washing process.   
      
      
              Nice description.  People often say their whole lives flashed   
   before their eyes when they thought they were about to drown... [grin].   
      
              I also like your use of the word "consternation" here.  From the   
   POV of a scientist we may be anthropomorphizing, i.e. attributing feelings   
   (perhaps incorrectly) to other species on the basis of how we might feel if we   
   were in a similar situation.  While I can't say exactly what's going on in the   
   cat's mind I know from personal experience that the cat will try to escape &   
   the scratches on the bather's arms may take weeks to heal.  In short stories   
   where every word is important I'd give "consternation" full marks for   
   functional elegance.  :-))   
      
              The cats I've known certainly seemed to dislike getting wet,   
   anyway, unless it was their idea!  We can use the reflexive for clarification   
   by saying   
      
                      when, while washing themselves, they suddenly freeze.   
      
      
      
   ak>  I can't vouch for the second variant - I've never observed   
      
   ak>  cats freezing when they wash themselves.   
      
      
              I have seen them pause in mid-action & gaze into space for a   
   moment. And when a schoolteacher says "Freeze!" it means s/he wants all the   
   kids within earshot to stop action... right now this second.  ;-)   
      
      
      
   ak>  But who knows - maybe the process wakes up some thoughts   
      
   ak>  inside their brains. After all people are often   
      
   ak>  deep in thoughts after scratching their heads. ;-)   
        |there's another idiom... "deep in thought [singular]"   
      
      
              Such repetitive motions can help people relax & enhance the   
   activity of alpha rhythms in the brain.  That's one way to stimulate intuitive   
   thinking, and improve their chances of a "brainwave".  Maybe it works with   
   cats too.  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)